Month: September 2015

The crew went out on another epic backcountry adventure this past weekend, celebrating the pending nuptials for one of the cooler dudes we know, Rocci. It was a classic weekend of trekking, bodysurfing, plot twists, whiskey and truly glorious nature.

Being in the backcountry with some of the best people in my life, toasting our my man the Pontz, and returning to one of my favorite National Forests … Life does not get any better than this.

So there we are, driving north on the 101, headed up to the lost coast.

As the best man for this excursion, I thought that I had everything covered. Coordinating the bay area rally spot, getting the bear canisters, making sure the food was all lined out, getting the trail head lined out for the dudes meeting us up north … We’ve all done this before, and I felt really solid about the weekend all around.

Okay, so we are driving along a country road, just off 101, headed to the lost coast trail head. Danch calls and Kyle answers. In like the 2 seconds before the call gets cutoff, Kyle thinks that he hears Danch say, “the lost coast is closed”. We were all like uhhhhh, he probably said “the lost coast is close” … Wishfully hoping that an entire national forest wasn’t friggin closed.

But, there wasn’t any cell reception, so all we could do was drive westward, and nervously go over the very limited message we received from Danch.

… Until he waived us down on the side of the road (at the sole spot where there was cell reception) and told us quite succinctly that indeed, the lost coast was closed because of a massive forest fire …

We immediately scrambled to find an alternative stretch of nearby back country.

Of everything I thought that I could have planned for, the Lost Coast being closed was not one of them. And ya know, I totally took it on my shoulders that I’d somehow let down Rocci. He empowered me to organize this, and fuck, I totally dropped the ball.

Within one second however, everything was ok. Rocci came right up to me, and was awesome. All good. No worries. Plus … The fact that our plans had to now change, and that we were all standing on the side of this random road in the middle of nowhere, that meant that at this moment the adventure had indeed begun.

Seriously, there is something just so damned cozy about my sleeping bag. The cold air on my face, the fresh smell of the ocean breeze, the eucalyptus grove surrounding our camp, our spot was as close to perfect as it gets. Totally secluded, cool and refreshing, camping does not get much better.

My core group of friends has figured out this life hack where we can rapidly escape into the wilderness, shed all of the stress and anxiety and deadlines of real life, and adventure and bond and stoke on the truly simple and beautiful things.

And Rocci – dude – I couldn’t be any happier for you and Jane. This bachelor party was the perfect start for this wedding extravaganza. You two have started something amazing, and we are so thrilled for the Pontzalanos!!!